Samanoud garment workers press strike into sixth day over unpaid wages
Garment workers at the Samanoud Textile and Terry Cloth Company in Gharbiya governorate pressed their strike into a sixth consecutive day on Tuesday, demanding their unpaid August wages as fears mount that the walkout could swallow remaining factory divisions if management fails to establish regular pay schedules.
The work stoppage, launched Thursday, escalated after a company official told striking women workers on Tuesday that the remainder of their August wages would not arrive until Sept. 29—a timetable the workforce rejected as an intolerable delay.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one striking worker told Al Manassa that pushing August’s balance to the final days of September will inevitably push the first installment of September’s wages, originally expected during the first week of October, even further back.
She warned that the strike will widen across every shop floor in the complex by early October if the company fails to disburse that upcoming installment on time.
Since mid-2025, Samanoud’s administration has enforced a system that breaks monthly salaries into three separate installments across the subsequent month, releasing partial sums roughly once a week.
Workers who previously spoke with Al Manassa condemned the policy, explaining that piecemeal payouts destroy their ability to cover basic household necessities. Past worker testimonies also noted that the company regularly missed its own installment deadlines over recent months.
The current dispute follows a wave of unrest that broke out in the weaving department on Sept. 10, according to a second female worker who spoke to Al Manassa.
That initial walkout lasted three days and ended only after the administration paid August salaries in full to staff in the weaving, inspection, and preparation units. Management, however, withheld those same dues from other divisions—forcing garment workers to walk off the job on Thursday.
On Monday, management disbursed 900 Egyptian pounds from the overdue August balance to striking women and ordered them back to their machines. The workers refused the partial payout, standing firm on their demand for their full monthly compensation.
The standoff drew immediate backing on Monday from a coalition of political movements, trade unions, and human rights organizations, who released a joint statement standing in solidarity with the women workers.
The signatories characterized management's delayed installments, sub-minimum wages, and failure to remit deducted social insurance contributions to state authorities as clear violations of basic labor rights.
The coalition demanded the immediate disbursement of all wage arrears, strict compliance with predictable payment timetables, the universal application of the statutory minimum wage with retroactive compensation for owed differentials, the release of frozen periodic bonuses, and the swift settlement of all outstanding financial dues.
The signatories further called on the company to transfer all social insurance sums docked from paychecks, pay off accumulated debt tied to those funds, and cease all intimidation, disciplinary sanctions, and retaliation against workers exercising their right to strike.
The confrontation comes against a backdrop of chronic instability at Samanoud Textiles over the past two years, marked by serial payment delays and cuts to healthcare coverage.
In July 2026, workers downed tools after being stripped of medical services despite having health insurance dues steadily deducted from their salaries. That strike ended only after management suspended six female garment workers from their jobs.
In April 2026, the entire plant launched a comprehensive strike over withheld March wages and the loss of medical care. The workforce rejected an administrative compromise offering 50% of their March pay, insisting on full compensation and an enduring solution to ongoing delays and wage fragmentation.
Earlier, on March 11, garment workers organized sit-ins and partial work stoppages to challenge the escalating crisis. The mobilization triggered a plant-wide walkout that concluded on March 18, after management disbursed full February wages and pledged to normalize payment dates and restore medical benefits—commitments that company leadership never honored.
The workforce has endured systematic infractions stretching back years. In April 2025, management applied the legal minimum wage solely to administrative personnel and department supervisors, igniting rank-and-file anger.
While the company eventually extended the adjustment to the wider shop floor, workers told Al Manassa at the time that management circumvented the law by folding overtime and allowances into the baseline minimum wage calculation.
Unrest reached a turning point on Aug. 18, 2024, when Samanoud workers mounted a 35-day strike demanding the legal minimum wage, only to yield under the threat of mass dismissals and state prosecution. That same month, security forces arrested 10 workers, among them labor leader Hisham Al-Banna.
Prosecutors brought sweeping charges of “inciting a strike, unlawful assembly, and attempting to overthrow the ruling regime.” Authorities eventually released the workers, but management subsequently dismissed Al-Banna in an act of arbitrary termination.